Birthday Boy - can you tell the age?

As always time is racing past me and somehow MB is as old as the number of elevated balloons!

As it's not easy to see the raised balloons face on, maybe you can see them better like this . .

Always great to use up retied DSP  and stamps, sometimes boys don't need too much crafting ;-)

Doesn't mean the rest of us can't keep on crafting, GenGen xxxx

Sunshine Sayings and Blooms & Wishes

At the end of a recent workshop, I decided to allow individual creativity to break through by doing five little 10 x 10 cm white cards so that we could play around with the stamps sets and dies.
These are four of my design which I did on square off cuts, ideal for layering up and adding onto background cards to make cards at short notice ;-)

These cards use the New In Colours with a little Rich Razzleberry and Marina Mist, but the sets are so versatile you can simply use your favorite colours.

The heart die from the Sunshine Sayings bundle is quite contemporary and in this example I cut them out in whisper white card stock and coloured them with watercolour pens, and then the wording is gorgeous in silver foil card stock.

Or for those who prefer a more selective colour palette, or more specifically silver . . .

Sometimes the simplest designs can be slightly enhanced with some simple colour layers and pearl embellishments, and then some extra petals, (with the Blossom Builder punch) and leaves layer up the design.

Keep on crafting, GenGen xxxx

Sweet Cupcake - 3 colour combinations!

The first time I attended a SU workshop was at the NEC in Birmingham when Stampin' Up! had a stand there. We made a little present bag, background stamped with rose buds and then layer stamped a rose for the decoration on scalloped circle decorative label, and, I was hooked!

So needless to say when I saw the Sweet Cupcake Stamp set & co-ordinating die, it was an instant addition to my order, bypassing any wish list completely ;-)

So as EVERYONE can be susceptible to cupcakes, young, old, male or female the possibilities are ENDLESS! Especially with the new Irresistibly Floral Speciality Designer Series Paper as a background with a new Sponge Brayer.

Stamp Set: Sweet Cupcake

Card stock: Pool Party, Floral Speciality DSP, Whisper White

Inks: Marina Mist, Pool Party and Soft Sky

Accessories: Cupcake Cutouts Framelits, Sponge Brayer

As I always do, I seem to work better backwards, so with this stamp set I prefer to stamp the palest colour first for the cake topping, then the mid colour and finally the darkest. Then with the cupcake base I find it easier to print the darkest colour, then the lightest colour and lastly the mid colour. It's about finding the way that works for you ;-)

EVERYONE likes a Chocolate cupcake, and here's my version of it, with the difference being . . .

Card stock: Soft Suede

Inks: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand

So with my first colour way my idea was Blue for a boy, Chocolate for everyone and then my girl version is a deeper version of the colour palette and yet another excuse to use Rich Razzleberry ;-)

Card stock: Rich Razzleberry, Silver Glimmer

Inks: Rich Razzleberry, Sweet Sugarplum, Pink Pirouette

Then obviously for a special celebration there is always the possibility of adding some glitzy numbers to mark that special celebration ;-)

Keep on crafting, GenGen ;-)

Swirly birds - seriously addictive!

With the massive catch up I have to be anywhere near up to date I am going to post smaller images illustrating slight variations of design, showing my complete inability to reproduce something twice ;-)

I love flowers always, but the stylised roses of the Swirly Bird stamp and matching die set give a perfect lattice work for the rose scattering, a great use for off cuts!

Cardstock: Old Olive, Whisper white

Inks: Old Olive, Garden Green, Melon mambo, Peach Peekaboo, Flirty Flamingo and of course Sweet Sugarplum.

True to form I am always playing around with the possibility of doing little work for great design, and contrary to popular belief it's due to time constraint rather than laziness ;-)

With the new in colours (2016-2018), this colour combination is very complimentary as seen here . . .

. . . where I have used Peach Peekaboo Print for the central rose, outer rose with the die cut in Flirty Flamingo and then cut the leaves in Emerald Envy, and Sweet sugarplum for small rose print and sentiment, et voila!

For the next spot the difference we also have a mash up on the stamp set front ;-)

As you can see, although similar, when you're 14 you need a little more glimmer and sparkle!

Stamp sets: Build a Birthday, Sassy Salutations, Birthday Blossoms

Cardstock: Black glimmer, Basic Black, Rich Razzleberry, Sweet sugarplum and various pinks from my stash ;-)

As a finale my favorite incarnation of the Swirly birds an excuse for my love of trees.

I have used Old Olive for the number 8 tree shape the Tree Builder Punch for the trunk, birds and flowers, with the bunting from the Balloon framelit dies - extremely handy for names of 5 letters ;-)

Keep on crafting, GenGen xxxx

Endless combinations for tree lovers ;-)

Please click on the side bar if you'd like to see this gorgeous bundle set, no prizes for wondering if I have already received mine ;-)

Hope to play around with this set over the weekend and have some results to post this coming week, at least that's the plan!

Spending a little time to download photos from my phone this weekend too, so that I can share the designs that I've been demonstrating at recent workshops, promise!!

Until later, enjoy the sunshine, and keep on crafting in the shade ;-)

GenGen xxxx